Corneal ulcer.....?

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tangoharvey

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One of our horses eyes was weeping loads, called vet ou t and she has a tiny corneal ulcer, probably from a prick from something in the field - she has had 3 days IV oxytet, and IV anti inflammatories, but her eye is still about 1/3rd cloudy.....anyone else had this, whats the prognosis, vet seems to think it will all go but thought i would see what the real experts think!! xx
 
Well have to say I have experienced corneal ulcer last year in my boy and my experience isnt a pleasant one I'm affaid.

We treated our boy with plasma and eye drops and did the aggressive treatment to try and stop the ulcer developing. He was also kept inside so the sun light couldnt damage the ulcer further.

Unfortunetly his ulcer was not healing and he ended up having contact lense fitted which in turn caused his eye to abscess and fill with pus. He ended up on boxrest for 4 months and still has a scar on his eye where the ulcer was and he is now blind behind in that eye.

There are some pics of the ulcer in the sticky post images of all your Horse's Veterinary conditions if you want to see it.

Feel free to ask anything else you have questions for :D
 
Almost 5 years ago my horse Sunny developed a corneal ulcer. It didn't respond to standard treatment prescribed by the local vet and after a week of slowly worsening, Sunny was referred to a specialist centre. He'd had untreated conjunctivitis in both eyes for years before I'd bought him - noone bothered to ever clear it up properly. The specialist centre advised he had developed an autoimmine disease called superficial keratitis, a known precursor to keratitis. Any damage/disease that involves the cornea is likely to be tricky-to-horrendous to clear up as the cornea has no blood supply. After a week in the specialist hospital, Sunny's cloudy cornea was very, very slowly beginning to clear. Vets said it might never go completely and he might need to be on a maintenance dose of Optimmune (hideously expensive) for life. Sadly, he was stabbed in his bad eye by yard staff applying the various creams and drops he needed and the eye immediately flared up as badly or worse than before. Back to the hospital but this time they struggled to get any improvement. After almost 2 weeks, he came home again, still on loads of drops and creams but we were unable to keep him pain free and the eye began to deteriorate badly. Uveitis set in and the internal structures grew so weak that the only solution was to remove the eye. Have to say, he was immediately a changed boy, out of pain after the 6 month battle. And he very soon adjusted to only 1 eye and carried on doing dressage and hacks and being the safest horse on the yard.

Good luck with your horse x
 
I have better news! I am sorry to be a bit vague, I'm not good with long words and it was about 5 years ago! Horse came in from field with swollen eye, presumed poked in the eye with a stick or the like. Treated with 2 types of medication, about 5 or 6 times a day, if I remember correctly, it did not respond as the vet hoped, so she had to have a scrape done, and she had a horrid infection (psudomonas something?). She ended up having to have a couple of scrapes and a contact lens fitted, the lens worked in the end, in total it took about 10 weeks to sort, and we did worry about her losing her eye for a while, but she is 22 now, disgracefully behaved and you wouldn't know she had ever had a problem!

Good luck - it sounds as if it is heading in the right direction!
 
To be honest for a small ulcer the prognosis is very good so I should try not too worry to much but you havn't mentioned using topical drops, are you not doing this? I treat ulcers with topical antibiotics 5-6 times a day, this is essential because it takes a few days for the blood vessels to grow into the cornea to take IV antibiotics to the place they are needed. During the first four to five days IV antib's will do no good at all so this is a very strange approach! I also give oral bute as the antiinflammatory as much cheaper than IV's every day!! If thats not sufficient their is an antiinflammatory eye drop that can be used to but fundamentaly coneal ulcers need to be treated with medicines put on the cornea!
 
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